The People of Solomon: Performance in Cross-Cultural Contacts between Spanish and Melanesians in the Southwest Pacific, 1568 and 1595

Abstract

In 1567 Álvaro de Mendaña led two vessels and 160 men on an expedition from Callao in Peru westward across the Pacific in search of lands of gold and dark peoples rumored in Inka legend, with the potential to claim new lands for Spain and permission to colonize if he saw fit. Two months later they made landfall at an island, which they renamed Santa Isabel. Engagement and negotiation with indigenous peoples were immediate. Over the next five months the expedition explored inland and then circumnavigated what they came to understand was an extensive archipelago, coming into contact with diverse local communities.